Ministers and Vice Ministers from the Trans-Pacific Partnership signatory countries issued the following Statement:
21 May 2017. Ha Noi, Viet Nam – Ministers and Vice Ministers from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam met today to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade.
The New Zealand Customs Service has issued a reminder to importers, exporters and brokers to take care when lodging an entry to ensure the correct country name has been used for either the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or Republic of Korea, whether it be country of origin, country of destination or country of export.
On 9 April 2017, the New Zealand Customs Service announced that the completed Trade Single Window (TSW) has been successfully deployed and is now available to the import/export industry to use. The announcement said:
On 13 April 2017, the Minister of International Trade and Industry published in the Federal Government Gazette P.U. (B) 191/2017 Notice of Affirmative Final Determination of an Investigation With Regard to Steel Concrete Reinforcing Bar Products Imported Into Malaysia pursuant to the Safeguards Act 2006 which applied to steel concrete reinforcing bars that are hot rolled steel bars containing indentations, ribs, grooves or other deformation. Subsequently, on 13 April 2017, the Minister of Finance published…
The WTO announced that WTO members discussed five new or enhanced proposals to advance services negotiations at meetings of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Services Council on 14-17 March 2017. Four of these proposals aim to ensure that domestic licensing procedures and technical standards do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade while one proposal relates to the establishment of a trade facilitation agreement for services. The WTO provided the following summaries:
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report of its inquiry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was tabled in Parliament on 7 February 2017.
On January 23, 2017, the President signed Presidential Memorandum Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement.
Following a public consultation process and input from N.Z. Customs Service (NZCS) customers, a Customs and Excise Bill was drafted and was introduced on 6 December 2016, into Parliament. The bill is now under consideration by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.
On 7 December 2016, the Ministry of Health and the New Zealand Customs Service posted updated information which may be of interest to travellers arriving from the United States.
This information will impact on travellers possessing cannabis-based products which have been lawfully supplied in the United States, and are intended for medical use.
On 15 November 2016, the New Zealand parliament passed by a 61-57 vote, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Amendment Bill, which is an omnibus bill that would amend 11 different NZ laws to meet obligations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and enable New Zealand to ratify the agreement.